HOW TO RESOLVE THE CREDIT CRISIS: GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith famously said, “The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.”  If banks can create money, why are we suffering from a “credit crunch”? Why can’t banks create all the money they can find borrowers for? 

                                                                                                                 Read more . . .

Borrowing from Peter to Pay Paul: The Wall Street Ponzi Scheme Called Fractional Reserve Banking

Bernie Madoff showed us how it was done, but his Ponzi scheme was small compared to one that has been perpetrated for hundreds of years by the banking system itself. What distinguishes the legal scheme known as “fractional reserve” lending from the illegal schemes of Madoff and his ilk is that the bankers’ scheme is protected by government charter and backstopped with government funds. The sheer size of the bailout efforts today, however, indicates that the banking scheme has reached its mathematical limits and needs to be superseded by something more sustainable.

Read more:   http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/ponzi.php

GROUND ZERO ON WALL STREET: FED FUNDS AND TREASURY BILLS HIT 0% INTEREST

The federal funds rate and the interest on 3-month Treasury bills both just hit ZERO percent. This means banks and the government are borrowing money for free. Yet demand for the T-bills at auction was four times the available supply! Who is clamoring to buy the debt of the world’s most insolvent debtor for no return at all — and why?

Read more  —  http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/zero_percent_t-bills.php

Sustainable Government: Banking for a “New” New Deal

Even before taking office, Obama has started his version of the “fireside chats” (updated from radio to online video) given by Roosevelt nearly weekly to reassure the public. He said on November 22 that he plans to create 2.5 million new jobs by 2011 and kick-start the economy by building roads and bridges, modernizing schools, and creating technology and infrastructure for renewable energy. These are excellent ideas, but what will they be funded with—more government debt?

Read morehttp://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=3162

“Oops, We Meant $7 TRILLION!” What Hank and Ben Are Up to and How They Plan to Pay for It All

The $700 billion that was arm-twisted from Congress in October was just the camel’s nose under the tent. The Paulson/Bernanke team is now prepared to pay $7.76 trillion to rescue the financial system. Prepared to pay how? Congress has not raised its debt ceiling to that level, and the Fed doesn’t have the funds on its books . . .

Read whole article here — http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/oops.php

All Is Well in Stepfordville: More on the Pre-election Chicanery of the Plunge Protection Team

It was another surreal week on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising a thousand points while the economy continued to sink into its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. More evidence of the Plunge Protection Team at work? The election was only days away . . .

Read more — http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/stepfordville.php

THE NOT-SO-INVISIBLE HAND: HOW THE PLUNGE PROTECTION TEAM KILLED CAPITALISM

October 24 marks the 79th anniversary of the October 1929 stock market crash.  Many feared a repeat of this disaster on Friday, October 24, 2008; but remarkably, disaster was averted.  How?  Suspicious observers saw the hand of the Plunge Protection Team pulling strings behind the scenes . . .

Read more

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/manipulation.php

THE COLLAPSE OF A 300 YEAR PONZI SCHEME: THE REAL DEBATE IS CRONY SOCIALISM OR FINANCIAL SOVEREIGNTY

Last night, the Presidential candidates had their last debate before the election. They talked of the baleful state of the economy and the stock market; but omitted from the discussion was what actually caused the credit freeze, and whether the banks should be nationalized as Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is now proceeding to do. The omission was probably excusable, since the financial landscape has been changing so fast that it is hard to keep up. A year ago, the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through 14,000 to make a new all-time high. Anyone predicting then that a year later the Dow would drop nearly by half and the Treasury would move to nationalize the banks would have been regarded with amused disbelief. But that is where we are today.

Read more —

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/modest_proposal.php

The Fed Now Owns the World’s Largest Insurance Company — But Who Owns the Fed?

The Federal Reserve has assumed sweeping new powers in the last year. These increasingly controversial encroachments on the public purse warrant a closer look at the central banking scheme itself.  Who owns the Federal Reserve, who actually controls it, where does it get its money, and whose interests is it serving?

Read more . . .

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/time_to_buy_the_fed.php

It’s the Derivatives, Stupid! Why Fannie, Freddie and AIG All Had to Be Bailed Out

Why the extraordinary bailout measures for Fannie, Freddie and AIG? The answer may have less to do with saving the insurance business, the housing market, or the Chinese investors clamoring for a bailout than with the greatest Ponzi scheme in history, one that is holding up the entire private global banking system. What had to be saved at all costs was not housing or the dollar but the financial derivatives industry; and the precipice from which it had to be saved was an “event of default” that could have collapsed a quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble, a collapse that could take the entire global banking system down with it.

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/its_the_derivatives.php

Take a Load Off Fannie: Bailout or Nationalization for the Mortgage Giants?

The U.S. Treasury recently sought and was granted an unlimited credit line for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with the authority to buy their stock, effectively nationalizing them; but this could mean $5 trillion more in liabilities for the federal government, causing it to lose its own triple-A rating. What to do? There is a solution that would salvage the mortgage giants and cost the taxpayers nothing . . .

Read more —

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/take_a_load_off_fannie.php

WAG THE DOG: HOW TO CONCEAL MASSIVE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

Last week, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had just announced record losses, and so had most reporting corporations. Unemployment was mounting, the foreclosure crisis was deepening, state budgets were in shambles, and massive bailouts were everywhere. Investors had every reason to expect the dollar and the stock market to plummet, and gold and oil to shoot up. Strangely, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 300 points, the dollar strengthened, and gold and oil were crushed. What happened?

Read more . . .

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/wag_the_dog.php

FANNIE AND FREDDIE: GIVING AWAY THE FARM

Last week, Congress passed a housing bill that gave the Treasury Department a blank check to inject billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars into mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, snatching them from insolvency. To accommodate this blank check, Congress obligingly raised its debt ceiling by $800 billion. Ouch! That’s nearly a trillion dollars. Why was it necessary to incur this potentially crippling public debt to bail out two completely private, for-profit behemoths, which have run themselves into bankruptcy with their own risky investment schemes? Policymakers said it was essential to maintain the country’s creditworthiness with foreign lenders, which today hold about one-fifth of Fannie and Freddie securities. According to a July 21 report by Heather Timmons in The New York Times. . .

Read more . . .

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/fannie_and_freddie.php

PUTTING THE “FEDERAL” BACK IN THE FEDERAL RESERVE

In a July 19 Wall Street Journal article titled “Why No Outrage?”, James Grant notes that financial behavior that would have been met with outrage in the 19th century is now met with near-silence from a too-tolerant populace. Why? He suggests that the lack of outrage may be because the old 19th century Populists actually won . . . .

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/federal-back-fr.php

Let the Lawsuits Begin: Banks Brace for a Storm of Litigation

Lawsuits threaten the banks from all sides – from state attorneys general, consumer class actions, and investor backlash. Shifting liability for the subprime debacle back to the banks could bankrupt even the biggest banks. But that might not be the end of the world . . .

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/bracing-storm.php

THE SUBPRIME TRUMP CARD: STANDING UP TO THE BANKS


More than 1.5 million homeowners are expected to enter foreclosure this year, and about half of them are expected to have their homes repossessed.  If the dire consequences Jefferson warned of 200 years ago have been slow in coming, it is because they have been concealed by what Jerome a Paris calls the Anglo Disease – “the highly unequal economy whereby the rich and the financial sector . . . capture most of the income but hide it by providing cheap debt to the middle classes so that they can continue to spend.” . . . . 

Read more here: http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/subprime_defense.php

Works of art are never finished . . .

  • I just received a nice query that prompted such a long response that I’ve decided to post both here: 
  • Anne Says:
    March 2, 2008 at 5:06 pm   Ellen: I’m still reading the first edition of your book (and I am so grateful for the clarity of it all; what a welcome education). Are you able to quickly summarize what topics are in the new version that are not in the original? Any hint on the topic of your new book? Many thanks for all this work…what a service.
  •          Ellen Says:                                                                            Thanks Anne! I’m still revising actually; my current book was published by print on demand through Lightning Source and Amazon, but I’m doing a real print run that will be available hopefully in about a month, which will have a long postscript bringing the book up to date since the market crashed in the summer of 2007. Besides bringing the book current, I’ve tried to weed out those errors that are critic-bait. I had to rush to print in the summer when I wasn’t completely satisfied with it, because the market was about to tip and I wanted to join in the fray with the commentators. Works of art are never finished, but we writers sometimes hide behind that and never get anything in print! Dickens set the standard; he was desperately poor and had mouths to feed, and he published a lot. “Publish or perish” was literal for him. I won’t perish but my country might — my country which I love despite all its current travails. That was what inspired me actually. My relatives are from Pennsylvania, and in my youth I loved to read about Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln and our stirring roots. Then I lost faith during the ’60s and ’70s, with the charges of “Ugly American” and the harm we had wrought on the Third World. Then when I learned that it wasn’t “us” and that it could be fixed — that the Founding Fathers were right and we just hadn’t tried it yet — I got excited again, and had to write it up. I’m itching to be done with this revision so I can get back to writing articles. You can write an article in a week and get it out and be in the fray and get feedback; I love that. The Internet has changed everything. On my new book . . . which one were you thinking of? I’m doing new editions of some earlier books on health and the politics of medicine. One called “Forbidden Medicine” with a new Foreword should be out in about 2 weeks. My concern is that we’re rushing headlong into paying for Modern Medicine for All without examining whether we really want it imposed on us. The oil/banking monopoly and the medical/drug cartel have the same roots. I’d also like to write a sequel to “Web of Debt” titled “Compound Interest: Weapon of Financial Mass Destruction.” I started one with a Mary Poppins theme but may not be able to sustain it for a whole book; it may have to be an article. (The Banks family, you know; “tuppence in the bank” or “feed the birds”? ) I’d also like to do a short 100-page summary of, or sequel to, “Web of Debt” called “Bankrupt in the Emerald City: How the Wizards of Finance Stole the American Dream and How We Can Get It Back.” That was actually my original title, and a friend did some really nice artwork for it; it just needs some new text!  Soon I’ll summarize the changes in my revised updated “Web of Debt” and post them on a page to the right on this blog.
  • Latest articles

    BEHIND THE DRUMS OF WAR WITH IRAN:
    NUCLEAR WEAPONS OR COMPOUND INTEREST?
    November 9, 2007
    http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/war-with-iran.php

    Update – more economic sanctions on Iran –
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2208176,00.html

    LETTER TO THE UNITED NATIONS:
    HOW TO CUT SUSTAINABLE ENERGY COSTS IN HALF
    November 5, 2007
    http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/energy-costs.php

    What’s the Wizard of Oz got to do with money reform?

    I just found a 12-page blog entry by “thx1138” that summarizes my book and what it all means so well that I’m copying the first 2 pages here.  (That may be copyright infringement, but here’s my defense: most of it came from my book!)  Thanks for your insights on my insights, thx1138!  I’ve read everything I could find on the subject and digested it and put it into my best prose; but the next reader who sees it fresh then sees even more ramifications.  My brilliant friendly editors played that role too.  It’s a group effort.  Anyone else with fresh insights is invited to post them at the right under the new blog section titled “Join in the Debate!”  I should add, because someone just brought it up, that Thx1138 and his commenters seem to have an issue with race, and I prefer to avoid that issue.  (You notice how I’m not even naming the race?)  I don’t think you can blame a whole race for anything in history; it’s always a few bad apples twisting the purposes of the race.  Even if it’s a leader with a whole army of followers, it still isn’t the “race” that did it.  Anyway it’s not my issue.  I’m just delving into the system, how it works, what went wrong, and how we can fix it.  So here’s the post: 

    THE WIZARD OF OZ REVISITED by thx1138

    http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/3408 

    I’ll get to the “Wizard of Oz” reference in a moment. It’s a bit of history I did not know before.

    First, you already know that private bankers own mankind. You know they create money on a computer screen. Take their power away, but leave them the power to create money, and with the touch of a button they will create enough money to buy the earth back again.

    You know that bankers create principal, but not the interest to service their loans. To find the interest, new loans must continually be taken out. This expands the money supply, increases prices, and robs you of the value of your money. Thus, private bankers ultimately rule through inflation, (ever-increasng debt) which makes you run faster and faster on a treadmill owned by the private bankers. Eventually you must drop.

    You also know that the government does not create money (except for coins). The Federal Reserve creates money and lends it to us. Every dollar in your hand is a debt note to private bankers. And since we all use money, we all play with debt (negative capital) whether we like it or not. If we ended the private banking cartel, the federal debt could be paid, income taxes could be eliminated, and social programs could be expanded — all without imposing austerity measures or sparking runaway inflation. This is not utopian. It has been done many times in history, starting with ancient Rome.

    The International Banker is like the Wizard of Oz, standing behind the curtain of policymakers and “elected” leaders. Behind the curtain is a little old man, playing with lights and loudspeakers.

    THE WIZARD OF OZ

    Frank Baum wrote his Wizard of Oz books at the turn of the century, when the money question was still a hotly debated issue. His Oz books were an allegory for our tyrannical money system. Example: In the 1890s, the private bankers did not yet own all the media sources. Therefore everyone was concerned with how money should be created. Should the government create it with full accountability to the people — or should private banks create it in secret? After the Jekyl Island meeting in 1910, the latter option won. World War I and the Great Depression sealed the private banks’ power. We have been enslaved ever since. (Those who think “enslaved” is an exaggeration do not understand the game.)

    William Jennings Bryan, the Populist candidate for President in 1896 and again in 1900, mounted the last serious challenge to the private bankers. In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) Frank Baum used the cowardly lion to represent William Jennings Bryan. In the 1900 book (not the 1939 movie) the Lion finally proves he is the King of Beasts by decapitating a giant spider that terrorizes everyone in the forest. The giant spider was the Morgan/Rockefeller banking cartel, which William Jennings Bryan opposed.

    The scarecrow represented farmers, who did not understand how the bankers were screwing them. The tin man represented industrial laborers who were desperate for lubricant (currency). Dorothy is the average American girl. The yellow brick road was the gold standard, which led to the Emerald City (Washington or, alternately, New York’s financial district). The wizard is the U.S. President, who in the book is terrified of the evil witches. The “wicked witch of the east” was the eastern financial establishment. The “wicked witch of the west” was the western bankers (at that time ensconced in Ohio). The “good witch of the north” was the people. The munchkins were the generally enslaved, who live in terror of the evil witches (the bankers). And so on.

    ALTERNATIVES

    Before World War I, two opposing systems of political economy competed for dominance in the United States. One was the New York financial district, which came to symbolize American finance. Its most important address was 23 Wall Street, known as the “House of Morgan.” Mr. J. P. Morgan was an agent of private Jewish banking interests. Since private financiers controlled the gold, they established a national currency based on the “gold standard.” Today the gold standard has been eliminated, and the global economy is based on funny money. This allows an increase of debt as never before in world history.

    The other system dated back to Benjamin Franklin. It operated out of Philadelphia, which was the USA’s first capitol before the capitol was moved to Washington. At one of the Constitutional Conventions, Franklin’s “Society for Political Inquiries” planned an economy that would free us from economic slavery to England. In response, England sent troops to enforce the private Jewish bankers’ power, thus sparking the War Of Independence. The Philadelphia faction favored a bank on a model established in provincial Pennsylvania. In this model, a state office issued or lent money, collected the interest, and returned it to the provincial government to be used in place of taxes. President Lincoln returned to the colonial system of government-issued money during the Civil War, but the bankers assassinated him and reclaimed control of the money machine.

    As you know, the bankers’ power was finally sealed by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, plus the Income Tax Act, World War I, and the Great Depression. Private banks deliberately caused all these disasters. Today the average person assumes that government (not private bankers) creates money. Therefore everyone thinks inflation is caused by an out-of-control government running the dollar printing presses. In reality, inflation is caused by private bankers issuing loans. As noted above, every dollar they create is a loan we must pay back to the bankers with interest. About 97% of our currency is not coins or bills. It exists only in the computers of private central banks. The interest on the U.S. government’s $9 trillion debt will soon be more than the taxpayers can afford to pay. When taxpayers can’t pay it, the economy will collapse. Then private bankers will launch World War III. Economists are paid to chatter about nothing. Their lies conceal the power of the private bankers. Economics needs lightening up with imagery, metaphors, characters, and a plot.

    REGARDING MY SOURCES

    Ellen Hodgson Brown, a brilliant attorney in Los Angeles, has written a book titled Web of Debt, which dissects and exposes the entire game. I saw the book at rense.com. Much of what she says you already know about, but there is much information I did not know, such as the Wizard of Oz books being an allegory for the tyranny of private bankers. Ms. Brown explains how and why the bankers deliberately sparked the illegal alien invasion, for example. She also includes numerous quotes from central bankers who explain (in their own words) how the game is played.

    I encourage you to troll around Ms. Brown’s web site. http://www.webofdebt.com/  Also be sure to check out her blog at https://webofdebt.wordpress.com/ . She has a lot of juicy stuff. She also says (correctly) that history must be completely re-written so we know the truth. Her analysis of Nazi Germany and the island of Guernsey (an independent nation off the coast of England) are major eye-openers. Miracles are possible if we just take back control of our money and follow the U.S. Constitution.You absolutely must read her “Dollar Deception: How Banks Secretly Create Money.” Ms. Brown explains how one American man legally defeated the banks, which wanted to foreclose on the man’s property. Since banks crate money out of thin air, there is no “consideration.” Hence all contracts with banks are null.  

    http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/dollar-deception.php

    You will also learn why there is a wave of illegal immigration from Mexico to the USA. Mexico is suffering from a depression, caused by private bankers (Goldman Sachs etc.) that stole billions from Mexico’s reserves. This wiped out almost all the jobs in Mexico, despite the fact that Mexico has plenty of oil. (See “The Tequila Trap.”)